PRIMARY SOURCES/A.V. Krebs

(A sampling of recent news stories and features that should
interest progressive populists. For full story and additional details
see publication or URL address.)

Fox Claims Vindication in Appeals Court Reversal

In a ruling on Feb. 14 handed down by the Court of Appeal of the
Florida Second District the court in essence said technically it is
not against any law, rule or regulation to deliberately lie or
distort the news on a television broadcast.

The three judge panel thus reversed the previous $425,000 jury
verdict in favor of journalist Jane Akre who charged she was
pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to air what she
knew and documented to be false information concerning the widespread
use of the Monsanto manufactured rBGH hormone. See
www.foxBGHsuit.com

Farm Groups Challenge New Labor Law

(Jake Henshaw, Ventura County Star, Feb. 25, 2003, California farm
groups filed their anticipated lawsuit against a new labor bill that
forces mandatory mediation on growers and farmworkers when contract
negotiations stall. Western Growers and the California Farm Bureau
challenged the law as unconstitutional in the suit filed in Superior
Court. The law was signed in September.
(www.visaliatimesdelta.com/news/stories/20030225/localnews/1055719.html)

Santa Fe Sets $8.50 Minimum Wage

(Associated Press, Feb. 28, 2003) The City Council approved an
ordinance requiring businesses and nonprofit organizations to pay
workers a minimum $8.50 an hour. Scores of local governments around
the country have set their own minimum wages for the employees of
businesses that win government contracts, but the Santa Fe ordinance
goes farther: It covers all workers not directly employed by the
government and businesses and nonprofit groups with 25 or more
workers. It will go into effect in January.
(www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14038-2003Feb27.html)

Grocer's Workers Hurt in Scandal

(Gregory Crouch, Jennifer Bayot, New York Times, Feb. 26, 2003)
The Netherlands, Feb. 25 &emdash; The accounting scandal at Royal
Ahold has left thousands of its Dutch employees in debt to the
company. In the 1990s, rising stock markets bolstered the idea that
employees and companies alike could benefit by encouraging workers to
own significant stakes in their businesses. The idea spread in the
United States and across the Atlantic.

Ahold, the global grocery company, created a program that
encouraged workers in the Netherlands not only to buy stock but
allowed them to borrow money to do so. Some 3,500 workers at Ahold
and its Dutch subsidiaries, including the supermarket chain Albert
Heijn, took out company loans in the last decade to buy shares of a
fund that invested in Ahold stock, debt and other obligations. Since
the company disclosed accounting problems on Monday, the company's
stock and bonds have plunged in value.
(www.nytimes.com/2003/02/26/business/26PLAC.html)

Mexico's Corn Farmers Go Hungry

(Tina Rosenberg, New York Times, March 3, 20003) In January,
campesinos from all over the country marched into Mexico City's
central plaza to protest. Thousands of men in jeans and straw hats
jammed the Zócalo, alongside horses and tractors. Farmers have
staged smaller protests around Mexico for months. The protests have
won campesino organizations a series of talks with the government.
But they are unlikely to get what they want: a renegotiation of the
North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, protective temporary
tariffs and a new policy that seeks to help small farmers instead of
trying to force them off the land.

The problems of rural Mexicans are echoed around the world as
countries lower their import barriers, required by free trade
treaties and rules of the World Trade Organization. When markets are
open, agricultural products flood in from wealthy nations, which
subsidize agriculture and allow agribusiness to export crops cheaply.
European farmers get 35% of their income in government subsidies,
American farmers 20%. American subsidies are at record levels, and
last year, Washington passed a farm bill that included a $40 billion
increase in subsidies to large grain and cotton farmers.

(www.nytimes.com/2003/03/03/opinion/03MON3.html)

'Salt of the Earth' Back from the Blacklist

(Lee Hockstader, Washington Post, March 3, 2003 SANTA FE, N.M.
&emdash; It is doubtful that any other American movie ever inspired
such official harassment and outright intimidation as "Salt of the
Earth," the saga of striking Mexican American miners written and
directed by blacklisted Hollywood filmmakers during the Red Scare.
During the course of production in New Mexico in 1953, the trade
press denounced it as a subversive plot, anti-Communist vigilantes
fired rifle shots at the set, the film's leading lady was deported to
Mexico, and from time to time a small plane buzzed noisily
overhead.

"Salt of the Earth" was completed eventually, only to be so
thoroughly suppressed on its release in 1954 that some film
historians call it the only blacklisted American movie.
(www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31353-2003Mar2.html)